An 8-year-old girl has died of internal bleeding after marrying a 40-year-old man in Yemen. Although officials have denied the news, Yemen locals have come out in their numbers to protest the shocking death of the minor. Highlighting the dangers and cruelty involved in child bride stories, the young girl identified as Rawan died on her wedding night after first intercourse.

Arwa Othman, head of Yemen’s House of Folklore and a leading rights campaigner, said the girl was married to a 40-year-old late last week in the town of Meedi in Hajjah province, north-western Yemen. “On the wedding night and after intercourse, she suffered from bleeding and uterine rupture which caused her death. They took her to a clinic but the medics couldn’t save her life,” Othman said. Othman said authorities had not taken any action against the girl’s family or her husband. A security official in the provincial town of Haradh denied any such incident had taken place.